


Brilliance

by CrumblingAsh



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce doesn't really approve of Pepper and Rhodey, Drabble, Gen, M/M, Post-Iron Man 3, Protective Bruce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 18:01:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1021708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrumblingAsh/pseuds/CrumblingAsh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's far too late when Bruce gets news about the Mandarin; he flies back to New York anyway. But his first stop isn't to Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brilliance

* * *

 

Bruce sees the news two weeks after it’s happened, cascaded across run-down stands desperately attempting to mimic those of one of the more popular American cities. Arranged in chronological order, their glossy covers out of place in the poverty-stricken village he’s drowned himself in, the face on each so familiar.

_Mandarin Claims Responsibility for Chinese Theater Bombing – Close Friend of Tony Stark in Critical Condition_

_Tony Stark Calls Out the Mandarin! (also, has the millionaire revealed his address to the world? See page 6!)_

_Mandarin Assault Leaves Stark Home at the Bottom of the Ocean: Will Stark Sink or Swim?_

_Stark’s Malibu Home Destroyed by Mandarin Forces!_

_Tony Stark Confirmed Missing, Feared Dead_

_Iron Man Falls to the Mandarin! Where are the Avengers?_

_Airforce One Crashes! Iron Man Sighted!_

_Iron Man and Iron Patriot Take Down Mandarin_

_Who Is A.I.M.?_

_Tony Stark Alive! Was He Captured, or Hiding?_

_IRON MAN – NO LONGER?_  
  
The last one, bold and black against a white cover, shows only the obscure image of a hospital, no other leading captions.

He’s walking away before the vendor can threaten him for browsing, head down.

 

* * *

 

He tips the taxi generously, stepping out into the glaring bright lights that sting his eyes, the night heavy and welcoming. People brush him by, rushing this way and that, their language fast and forcibly learned; he doesn’t try to make sense of anything they’re saying.

The airport’s doors are deceptively clean and glistening, free of the dusted dirt that makes up the ground, but he doesn’t step through them, instead standing at the edge of the curb, handle of his bag clutched loosely in his hand, waiting.

Inside, the Other Guy grumbles lowly at the sound of boots tapping lightly against the pavement, heading toward him. He tilts his head, sooths the beast in his mind because they _need this_ , and doesn’t jump when the footsteps stop.

“Doctor Banner,” the nameless agent greets professionally, a hint of caution. “Is there somewhere we can take you?”

He allows a small, harsh smile to cross his lips as he turns to the shadowed figure and the sleek black SUV that has discreetly pulled up. He’s been told it passes as friendly.

“New York.”

 

* * *

 

Everything inside of Bruce is screaming to go to Tony _now_.

The urge is almost unbearable, suffocating as it grips at his throat in a lump of emotion. It’s strong, and natural instinct is to latch onto and obey it just to make it feel right.

He’s never had many friends – even before the accident, before the Other Guy, there were not many people who could approach him without making him want to hide or fight, and even fewer of those people who stuck around. Tony Stark, brilliant and bold, had approached him without the slightest of fear in his eyes, shaking his hand without hesitation and an admittedly effective (if awkward) ice-breaking crack at his destructive alter-ego. Had faith in him without reason to, trusted him, invited him into _his home_ with nothing more than a smile and gifts and science.

That smallest bit of himself he recognized in the billionaire’s cocky eyes.

Bruce isn’t ashamed to admit that he treasures that, surprised that the _Other Guy_ treasures that. What little the agents had been able to offer him during the flight on the events of the Mandarin and A.I.M and Pepper and Tony’s _stupid, stupid_ move after, are thin at best, and the thought of Tony being hurt, being lost without someone around who could understand him and listen to him, sets Bruce on edge. _He should be there_.

When SHIELD sends a car to pick him up from the base’s landing strip in New York, however, he turns down an offered ride to the Tower, or even a hotel, and politely requests instead, a ride to Stark Industries.

His eyes trickle veins of green that burn behind his sunglasses, and he isn’t questioned.

* * *

 

His assigned agent steps in front of the protesting secretary, effectively silencing her, and Bruce slips into the office without problem.

Pepper Potts is sitting at the sleek, modern black steel desk that is swamped in papers and files, and for just a second he pauses. Her eyebrows are pushed together in a pained frown, her strawberry hair slipping messily from its ponytail, her eyes squinted in discomfort, pronouncing the bags beneath them without guise. She’s tired, rundown; it’s so easy to see, and for a second he contemplates going back, leaving this to play out however it will. He cannot really fault Pepper for being human; for faltering under the pressure of torture burning her from the side out, of the fear she had faced.

Deep inside, the Other Guy growls, and he remembers Tony, _understands_ Tony, and he shuts the door behind with a hard click.

The woman’s head snaps up, the pain in her expression melting away instantly to the cool mask of a professional that fades just as quickly into surprise as she registers his face.

He moves quickly, because hesitation will kill this.

His voice is low, soothing as he speaks to her. Asks her who it is that is always working, who it is that’s always yelling, who it is that’s always trying. Who she is pushing Tony to be a “better person for”, who it was that wanted the suits destroyed. Tony suffers from nightmares, how had she been handling that; handling it now? Tony needs constant affirmation, does she give that without getting annoyed? Does she still feel like a personal assistant to the great Anthony Stark, instead of Tony’s very much adored girlfriend? Is it still a role she finds herself fulfilling on reflex rather than need after so many years of doing it?

Small things first, little things he knows neither of them have really been paying attention to.

She’s angry and he can’t stop to let up.

Was it Tony’s idea to remove the arc reactor, to fall in with the state-of-the-art pacemaker created by another company, to go under the knife _again_ after Afghanistan? Had he chosen the hospital, looked over the doctors, _had he been okay with this decision?_ Had Pepper, or even Colonel Rhodes, asked him if it was something he wanted to do, if he was _sure_ he was doing it for himself and not for them, if it was something he. had. wanted.

“Because, forgive me,” he says softly, “it just seems to me like you and Colonel Rhodes, two of the very few people Tony trusts with himself in this world, are working for what _you_ want. That you’ve convinced yourself that he’ll be better off doing what you want, that he’ll get over it, and are either not thinking about what _Tony_ wants, or worse yet, not letting him _have it_.”

This isn’t what he had planned when he walked into the building. He had been prepared to rage, to break things, to threaten this woman and the other man who dared to consider himself the best friend of Tony Stark. He had wanted to watch the fear dance across her face the way he knew it had danced in Tony when they removed the reactor. But Pepper’s face has gone from angry to white. All signs of her headache are gone except for her eyes; she’s covered in it. She’s strong, Pepper Potts, but she’s fragile too – just human, and Bruce thinks that he can see a little of what Tony fell so violently and completely for.

“You’re right, what you’re thinking,” he continues gently. “It’s not right that Tony is always feeling like he has to prove himself. That he keeps doing more and more things for attention. That his nights are filled with nightmares and his days are filled with defense. It’s not right, and it’s not normal.” He takes a deep breath. “But believe me when I say you can’t fix that about him, and he doesn’t want you to. He won’t say it, but he just wants to be accepted by you the way he is, and all you’ve been telling him is that he’s _wrong_.”

“You think I should end it with him.” She doesn’t say it as a question, just looks at him with that same stony look of a professional. He gives her a sad smile.

“I think… that you should consider what is actually best for _Tony._ ”

 

* * *

 

 

He’s not a therapist.

He leaves Pepper’s office in the same SHIELD car that brought him in, and enters Stark Tower to no fanfare and a haggard looking Tony in yesterday’s clothes, smile brittle.

The absence of the blue glow from his chest twists Bruce’s gut like tiny shards of glass.

The relief that spreads across the genius’ face like water when Bruce admits that he’s staying for a while, rips it in half with force. Sincerity leaks in through the cracks Tony couldn’t fill, reflections of a familiar child from a different life.

“Upstairs,” Tony insists firmly, grabbing his bag and dragging him toward the elevator. “Suites. There’s a suite. For you, I mean. And food. There’s food. And places to sit, you look tired. We can sit.”

“And talk,” Bruce agrees, and smiles at the face his friend makes because, despite it, Tony’s hold on his doesn’t slacken.

(After Tony’s spilled everything, lost himself to his memories and saying more than he means, Bruce will pretend he’s heard none of it because Tony doesn’t need things analyzed. The Other Guy will seethe, roar, _want out,_ and Bruce will calm him, tell Tony he was sleeping, and spend the next few weeks subtly acting on it, keeping close. He understands).

“Talking, ew, really? We’re going to do that? This? Fine. Ugh. But food first.”

 

 


End file.
